Exploring Students' Views of Portfolio Assignments to Foster Self-reflection in Preclinical Dental Education

Portfolios, collected evidence of students' learning and achievement, have been widely used in health profession education for learning and assessment purposes. However, little has been documented on their use to foster self-reflection in preclinical dental education. This exploratory study assessed students' views of portfolio assignments to foster self-reflection in preclinical operative dentistry courses.

Participants were first- (Y1) and second-year (Y2) undergraduate dental students who completed a preclinical operative course in the College of Dentistry at the University of Saskatchewan. These students were asked to answer an online post-course survey to assess their view of the portfolio assignments that were part of the course. Specifically, they were asked to rate 13 statements related to experiential and instrumental outcomes of portfolio assignments (outcome evaluation) and their level of comfort with the activities involved in completing the assignments (process evaluation) on a 5-point Likert scale from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5). Descriptive statistics (standard deviation, mean) were used to report the data. A t test was performed to assess statistical differences between Y1 and Y2 dental students.

Of the 69 students enrolled in the preclinical courses, 25 Y1 and 25 Y2 students completed the survey (72.5%). No statistically significant differences between the ratings of Y1 and Y2 students were observed (p ≥ 0.05). Their combined ratings showed that students enjoyed the portfolio assignments, found them beneficial and felt comfortable performing the activities involved in developing the portfolios (mean scores 1.54-2.42).

Students viewed portfolio assignments as a learning tool to foster self-reflection in preclinical operative dentistry courses. Further research is needed to measure the effects of portfolio assignments on student learning, including self-reflection.